Welcome Aboard, Private
by Andrew the Archangel
Summary: Private Preston Marlowe, a normal U.S. soldier that had seen some things in his life that were not normal. He had struck gold, literally, he had destroyed a scalar weapon, and shot a man while falling from the sky. But this is much different... ON HOLD
1. Introduction

**Introduction**

Hello all! Before you read my story there are a couple technical things you need to be aware of. Things like Marlowe's loadout and Shepard's class and alignment (paragon/renegade). Also, the story is going to take place during the Mass Effect 2 storyline.

First, Marlowe's loadout:

-XM8 Prototype

-MP443 Grach (It's the only pistol in single player)

-Barrett M95 (Only on special occasions)

-Standard U.S. Army Combat Knife

Second, Shepard:

-Appearance: Male Default

-Class: Undecided (PM me or review this intro please)

-Alignment: Paragon

-Romance: Liara T'Soni (Stayed faithful)

-Squad Members (Most of the time in addition to Marlowe): Garrus and Tali

And that should be it with the technicals of the story, as mentioned if you have recommendations for the class of Shepard, PM or review, if I don't get any he'll just become a soldier. I'll have this updated ASAP. Thanks and enjoy!


	2. Chapter 1

**What the Hell Happened and Where the Hell am I?**

"Marlowe! Wake up, man."

Private Preston Marlowe. That name held a large amount of meaning to me. It was my own. After a few seconds of grogginess, I looked around the helicopter. I remembered we were on our way to Alaska to help fight against the Russian invasion. I saw my squadmates sitting around the blackhawk. First, "Haggard", a Texan that put in layman's terms, loves to blow stuff up. He could never keep his mouth shut, and his crazy rear, got us a large amount of gold, which we were caught with. After that, the U.S. took the gold and threw us right back into the service. We were lucky we didn't have a worse punishment. Next, "Sweetwater", the "geek" of the squad, a tech expert that could never keep his mouth shut as well, almost as bad if not worse than Haggard. After him was Redford, or "Sarge", our leader. The man who I felt probably would not be in this mess if he hadn't made his decision to come to B-Company for them to cut his term short. Last, was the new guy. Heh, I remembered when I was called that. Private Tom Fischer, he was a young kid, probably just hit drinking age right before he got sent over here. The rumor was that when he got in he became friends with a guy from the 82nd armor and drove a tank into battalion CP on a dare. All that was happening now was we were headed to Anchorage. His mishap made me think of the accident I had with the helicopter and the limo. That'll be a story to tell the guys when I get back home, if I get home.

"Alright guys. Here's the sit-rep. We're being deployed in a small village up north about a mile from Anchorage, to move through the woods to the city." Redford stated in an annoyed tone.

Fischer opened his mouth to say something, but was immediately interrupted by Haggard who asked the obvious question, "Why don't they just deploy us in Anchorage, Sarge?"

"Because Haggard, the city's too hot for us to land."

"Better us walk then end up looking like Swiss cheese, right Pres?", Sweetwater asked.

"You got that right Sweets."

"Mmm, Swiss cheese. Right now I could go for a burger. Swiss cheese, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, the works.", Haggard stated.

Then, Fischer stated,"Now, you're makin' me hungry, Hags."

"We're gonna have to settle for snow for now. Let's go." Said Sarge.

"Make sure it isn't yellow." Haggard added.

I realized the chopper had landed, so I immediately grabbed my XM8, and took point as we began to move to the woods.

Over the radio, we heard,"I'm off boys. Good hunting."

'I recognize that voice.' I thought. I dismissed the thought from my head, and the helicopter took off, leaving us standing in front of the woods between us and Anchorage. Then Sarge looked at me and nodded and said,"Lead the way, Marlowe." I nodded back and started into the woods, scanning the trees through my ACOG scope, the red reticle in the center of my vision. Then, I heard a whisper in a language I could not understand. Shit, Russians. I held up my fist in the hold-up gesture and crouched down. I saw a blur of motion, and aimed at it. I couldn't get a clear shot.

"Come out, you piece of shit." I whispered to myself.

When looking through my scope, the red reticle disappeared. I hit the side of the scope and realized that I was glowing blue, when I looked down at myself. I realized my squadmates were in the middle of a firefight with the Russians, in the trees. I faintly heard as I was slipping away from consciousness,

"Oh shit, they shot Pres with some sort of laser gun-thingy, and now he's glowing blue and not moving!"

All of a sudden I saw black, then stars, and then I was in the middle of a forest, somewhere, but not in Alaska. Everything faded to black as I finally slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Whoa! Commander, you might want to get up here!"

Commander Shepard started sprinting towards the elevator to get up to the cockpit. Joker sounded surprised, and that was not a good sign. The elevator doors opened a minute later and he started fast-walking towards the pilot, dismissing Kelly who tried to start a conversation with him, and then finally walking into the cockpit.

"What is it, Joker?"

"Well, down there on that planet in front of us was a shockwave half that of Hiroshima."

"..." Shepard's mouth dropped open,"What on Earth could have caused that?"

"No idea, sir, but it might be a good idea to get down there and check it out."

"Anything I should be aware of?"

"No sir, uhhh just a shockwave, not even a tree was affected."

"Alright", Shepard's omni-tool activated, and he activated a comm link,"Tali. Garrus. Grab your gear and meet me in the shuttle bay ASAP."

He was answered by two simultaneous responses of,"On my way, Shepard."

* * *

"Hey Tali, Shepard sounded kind of in a rush to go, what do you think for?" The Turian said.

"I don't know Garrus, but whatever it is I'm sure Shepard can handle it." The young Quarian said.

Just then as they were talking, the commander with his armor, weapons, and all walked into the hangar.

"Tali, Garrus. Know anything about Human war history?"

They exchanged glances then looked back at Shepard.

"Uhh, no."

The spectre needed a second to catch his breath, then he stated,"In the year 1945, during humanity's World War II, the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The shockwave was enormous, and thousands of people died. The reason why I'm in such a rush is because the blast that just occurred on the planet that we are in orbit of was half the size of Hiroshima's. However, nothing was affected and there's no radiation, so we're going down there to check it out."

"Interesting. A shockwave, but nothing was affected." The Turian seemed truly puzzled because it defied all laws of physics, but then again they rode around in spaceships and used giant machines to shoot themselves across the galaxy, so anything's possible.

"That's why and we have no idea what happened or what caused it."

The three walked into the shuttle and took their seats.

* * *

Preston slowly stood up, he felt like he had been punched in the stomach repeatedly and like he was going to throw up. He was a soldier though. He had to keep going, keep pushing ahead. He looked around for his rifle, it was nowhere to be found. Preston's hand then went to his hip, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he found the familiar grip of his MP443 Grach, a pistol that he had come to trust and love like a brother. It certainly had saved his life more than once. He slipped it out of the holster, flipped off the safety, and aimed it ahead at the trail in front of him. Nothing. He had no idea where he was, and he knew for certain that this wasn't Alaska. The lack of snow gave it away pretty easily. He decided it would be a better idea to go look for help than to wonder about this now. And with that, he started along the trail.

* * *

"Shepard, I found something over here." Tali yelled to him. He immediately turned and began to walk towards where she was in the woods. When he got there he realized that Garrus had beaten him there and was holding something that looked in a way similar to the M8 Avenger. A rifle, he concluded.

"Shepard, this is what Tali found. To me, it looks like a rifle. It says on the side, 'XM8 Prototype Assault Carbine'." Garrus handed Shepard the rifle. He looked it over and saw what Garrus was talking about. 'XM8 Prototype Assault Carbine'.

Shepard handed the rifle back to his Turian friend, and said,"I've never seen anything like it either Garrus." Garrus then pressed a button down on the side, and a part of the bottom part of the weapon fell off and landed in the dirt with a soft "PFFF". Shepard leaned over and saw something he could not believe inside the piece.

"Bullets. There are bullets in this weapon." Shepard was astounded, as well as his two alien friends who immediately looked at him shocked. He put two fingers around the top bullet in which he guessed was the magazine and pulled it out for all to see.

Garrus was the first to respond,"Well, no wonder we've never seen one before that's got to be an antique or something." He then held the rifle in one hand and put his other hand up to his "chin" in contemplation.

"I agree. However, where did it come from? No one would leave something like that out in the middle of a forest on an unexplored planet." Tali said, studying the weapon intently with her eyes glued to the piece.

"Maybe this is somehow related to that blast that happened earlier." Garrus said, now eyeing the weapon as well.

"I think you're right."

Right after Shepard finished speaking, a human wearing some type of uniform walked through the trees and looked at them. He was holding a pistol that looked like nothing he had ever seen at his side, and he looked at Garrus and Tali, and his mouth literally dropped open.

The man said,"Uhhh, sir, maybe you can help me out here. I have no idea where I am, what's going on, what you're wearing, and why there are two aliens standing next to you."

Shepard glared at the man, angry,"You got something against aliens?"

The man took a step back and stated, surprised,"Uhhh no. Last time I was conscious, there were no aliens in contact with humanity."

Shepard, Tali, and Garrus all looked at each other puzzled and dumbfounded at what the human had just said.

"Hey, how'd you guys get my rifle?"

Their gaze shifted to the rifle and back to the human again, they were all silent until Shepard decided to be the first to speak.

"We'll get back to the ship, and we'll talk about this there. But first, what's your name? I'm Commander Shepard."

"Commander? Oh crap," The man stiffened and saluted him immediately,"Private Preston Marlowe, reporting for duty, sir!"

Shepard let a smirk cross his own lips,"At ease, Marlowe. Welcome aboard, private."

* * *

AN: The first chapter of this fanfic is done! Woo! This was extremely fun to write, and I will alternate writing this and my Alan Wake story. As I stated in the intro, I have still not decided what class Shepard is. So PM or review please. Thanks.


End file.
